A fired up pack and a French referee with a penchant for yellow cards helped the All Blacks to a 51-20 win that's seen the Bledisloe Cup retained for an 11th year with a test to come in Brisbane in October.
This was a much better performance by the All Blacks. While coach Steve Hansen's been polite in public about the quality of the Australian pack, he will have let his troops know in short, crisp words how unacceptable it was to be dominated by a Wallaby pack as they were last week in Sydney.
There could be no repeat, he will have declared, and there wasn't. With lock Brodie Retallick and Sam Whitelock, and livewire hooker Dane Coles to the fore, ably supported by an often rampaging No.8 Kieran Read, the black pack dominated the Wallabies in every facet of the game.
It meant they survived losing skipper Richie McCaw to the sinbin in the 12th minute when referee Romain Poite correctly ruled he'd used his hands in the ruck.
That cost New Zealand three points with Kurtley Beale's penalty leveling the score at 6-6, but the lead was regained while McCaw was still off the field. The Wallabies weren't so lucky.
When lock Rob Simmons was sinbinned for deliberately collapsing a maul just as McCaw was due to return to the fray, the All Blacks made them pay, driving the Australians off the ball in the first scrum of the match. A few minutes later they had a penalty try when the Wallabies seven-man scrum collapsed on the goal line.
It got worse for the Wallabies a few minutes later when a turnover after a strong run by fullback Israel Folau saw a deft bit of play by first-five Aaron Cruden send Julian Savea away for his 24th try in as many tests.
They went into the break with a commanding 23-6 lead and returned with Malakai Fekitoa having replaced Ryan Crotty who'd suffered a cheek bone injury early in the match.
Fekitoa had a busy start and played a hand in the break that finished with a try to Read, his 16th in his 64th test and the 30-6 scoreline making depressing reading for the few Wallabies supporters in the 48,000 strong sold out Eden Park crowd.
It didn't get any better for them as the black pack showed they didn't need Australia to be down a man to dominate, driving McCaw over from a lineout for his 22nd test try as the All Blacks stretched to a 37-6 lead.
They, and McCaw, repeated the trick a few minutes later, McCaw scoring two tries in a test for just the third time in his stellar career.
At 44-6 the Wallabies were staring down the barrel of potentially their worst ever defeat to the All Blacks, but tries to Folau and Wallaby skipper Michael Hooper put paid to that.
It was a rare stanza where the All Blacks defence was breached on a night where McCaw and centre Conrad Smith will have again topped the tackle counts.
The All Blacks finished a man down, Poite sending replacement prop Ben Franks to the bin for a silly infringement in the 75th minute, but still managed to finish on a high note, replacement loose forward Steven Luatua crossing for the All Blacks sixth try.
With Aaron Smith kicking the conversion the All Blacks won 51-20, an emphatic statement in the wake of last week's 12-12 draw.
3 News
source: newshub archive
